Kakos said what he has liked best about the congregation is the caring and compassion of its members.

“I thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with them in ways that made better the lives of our members and our community,” he said Monday following a program at the church commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The 64-year-old Kakos said he looks forward to spending “uninterrupted time” with his grandchildren, but will continue to be active in local causes.

“I will continue to minister with a lower case ‘m’,” he said.

Under Kakos, the church has seen more than $1 million in renovations and additions, and added the full-time position of minister of education.

The minister has been a charter member of the Friends of the Homeless, which oversees the Interfaith Cot Shelter on Center Street, since 1996. He has also been active on the Committee to End the Sanctions on Iraq.

He was arrested along with seven other Western Massachusetts residents on Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2003 Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee. They were protesting the imminent invasion of Iraq under what they contended were false pretenses.

In March of 2008 he was arrested and jailed again over the same issue.

He plans to continue residing in Northampton.

Kakos became an ordained United Church of Christ minister in 1975. He has served churches in Everett, East Douglas and Westfield in Massachusetts as well as in Windsor, Conn.

Kakos is the second longest serving minister in church’s 178-year history.